Falling
by taiyakisoba
Summary: After Aya sends Momiji on another wild-goose chase to the Bamboo Forest, the white wolf tengu finds herself fighting for her life and that of the were-youkai Kagerou. But can love survive between a youkai and a were-youkai, or will a life divided between the human and youkai worlds keep them apart?


**Falling **_by taiyakisoba_

_Momiji X Kagerou_

Momiji perched atop a rock at the head of the waterfall, the roaring waters crashing into a spray of rainbows about her. She eased her weight back on her haunches and gazed down across the silver curtain of the falling water, down along the great length of the river where it ducked in and out of sight amongst the birch and pine of Youkai Mountain far below. Her eyes were drawn to a single maple leaf that was floating on its surface, spinning lazily, a red shape against the gold. She had watched the leaf slip past the rock she was sitting on, lost it for a moment in the falling diamonds of the waterfall then spotted it once more, bobbing to the surface in the pool at its base before being chased out and along the river by the swift current.

Momiji smiled softly to herself.

_You made it, huh?_

She saw the leaf one last time, and then it vanished behind the trees as the river curved away and was gone.

Spray hit her face, and she licked at the few droplets that had settled on her lips. Her hair felt cool, but not wet, for the sun on this early autumn day still held much of summer in it. The light in the air was a mass of molten gold, and higurashi droned their song, giving an ebbing and flowing voice to the waves of heat.

She turned her head and scanned the north. No intruders. The east. No intruders. The south-

There, on the bank, rainbows playing about her head and shoulders, was Aya.

The crow tengu raised a hand. "Ho!"

Momiji forced herself to smile and wave back.

"How goes the guard duty, Petty Patrol Tengu Momiji?" asked Aya. "Does Youkai Mountain remain safe from its many foes?"

"Some cranes flew across, earlier," replied Momiji, standing up and leaning back until her back cracked. "And I saw a fish jump."

"Lord Tenma was right to put his faith in you," said Aya. "You're a credit to the Youkai Mountain Self-Defense Force."

_I doubt Lord Tenma is even aware of my existence_, thought Momiji. Still, she smiled at the compliment. Even though it was couched in playful sarcasm, it was an unusual thing for Aya to compliment her on anything.

The crow tengu remained there, grinning, and Momiji began to feel awkward, as if something further was expected of her.

_What to say, what to say... oh._

"Uh, so how is the latest edition of BunBunMaru coming along?"

"At the presses as we speak." Her red eyes gleamed. "It's going to make some waves, Momiji. I have a hard-hitting expose on the love-life of a certain stuck-up flower youkai."

"Don't you ever get tired of poking around in other people's business?" Momiji regretted the words as soon she said them. She hadn't meant to sound so harsh.

Aya was unperturbed. If anything, her grin deepened. "It's all just part of the quest for the Ultimate Truth. If you want the big picture, you have to deal with the dirty little details first." She clapped a hand to her face. "Oh, and _that_ reminds me why I came here in the first place."

Here it comes, thought Momiji with a sudden intake of breath.

Aya's voice grew cajoling. "I was flying back from the Human Village after getting some juicy photos of a certain flower youkai's secret love-nest when I dropped something..."

Momiji sighed. "What was it _this_ time?"

"Oh, one of my geta," she said in exasperation. "I guess I was just too excited with the scoop. I'm pretty sure I dropped it somewhere between the Human Village and the Bamboo Forest."

With a kick of her feet Aya half-flew, half-leaped over the river and landed next to Momiji. The rock was only small, and there was just barely enough space for the two of them.

"But you're wearing two geta now," said Momiji, looking down. The closeness of the crow tengu made her nervous. Aya's wings were brushing against her, and her scent was everywhere - that warm, gorgeous scent of her body. Momiji's sense of smell magnified it a hundredfold, and her head reeled.

She liked Aya's scent very much.

"Oh, these things? They're just my backup pair." Aya turned glistening eyes on her. "Do you think you could do me a favour, Momiji? I promise I'll make it up to you."

Momiji's smile was cunning. "You'll do a guard duty for me?"

Aya frowned. "Oh, much better than _that_! How about your own personal photo-shoot?" She looked the white wolf tengu up and down. "You know, if you paid a little more attention to yourself, you'd almost be cute." She waved a hand before her face. "Except for the wet-dog smell, of course. But that's the beauty of photography, isn't it?"

Even couched in the insult, the flattery struck home. Momiji tried to look annoyed and struggled to think of a way to refuse her, but the truth was, she didn't want to.

"Well, I don't really want a photo-shoot," she said. "You can just owe me a favour if you like."

"Don't you need to sample my scent before you start looking?" Aya slipped a graceful foot out of its geta and waved it at the white wolf tengu.

Momiji stared at it, her cheeks growing redder. "Uh - that won't be necessary."

I already know your scent backwards and forwards.

Aya seemed somewhat disappointed, but replaced her foot without saying anything.

Momiji sighed and looked around. "Well, everything's quiet here and my guard duty is just about finished, so I guess I can slip away. Between the Human Village and the Bamboo Forest, you said?"

"Oh Momiji, you're a darling!" Aya beamed. "I'd hug you, but, you know... the smell and all."

Momiji said nothing, but with a push of her own geta against the rock she leaped up into the air and flew off, pausing to wave to Aya before she vanished behind the screen of trees.

Aya waved and smiled until Momiji disappeared, then she crouched down on the rock and began to giggle.

"Oh my faithfully little puppy dog. You'll do anything for me, won't you?"

There was a sudden rustling from the riverbank.

Aya gasped, clapping a hand to her mouth. "Momiji?" Had she doubled back? Had she heard everything she'd said?

The rustling ceased and was replaced by the sound of a cell-phone's camera clicking.

Aya's expression changed immediately from shock to annoyance. "Oh. It's _you_," she muttered. "Come out so I can see you."

The bushes parted and another crow tengu stepped out onto the riverbank. She was younger than Aya, and shorter as well, her brown hair tied up in pigtails with purple ribbons. Her blouse was half-untucked, her tie loose and sloppy, her purple and black chequered skirt a little too short. As she walked towards the riverbank she didn't once look up from the cell-phone in her hands.

"How much did you hear?" demanded Aya, getting to her feet.

"Everything," said Hatate, still not looking up. "I _saw_ everything, too. You know, you shouldn't treat Momiji like that."

Aya frowned. "Like what?"

"Sending her off to do useless errands for you."

Aya blinked. "But I _did_ lose my-"

Hatate looked up at last. Expressionless, she jabbed her cell-phone at Aya's feet with her phone. "_Those_ are not your spare geta. They're your usual pair."

Aya sighed. "Quite the little fashionista, aren't we? Okay, so I dropped one of my backup pair on purpose. I'm just having a little fun."

"I don't know if I agree with your idea of fun," said Hatate. "It seems like bullying to me."

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," said Aya, her hands on her hips. "You know how much Momiji enjoys finding things. I'm just giving her a chance to show off her abilities."

"I wonder if that's why you do it," said Hatate.

"What do you mean by that?" demanded Aya.

"Nothing," said Hatate. She looked up from her phone again, a humourless smile on her lips. "You know, Aya, you're always talking about the Ultimate Truth, but I wonder if you really have any idea what that really means."

Aya glared at her. "This is why no one reads your paper, Himekaidou. Everything you say is just so... cryptic. Well, see you later, second-string. I've got _real_ scoops to find." She kicked off against the rock and flew away.

Hatate returned to playing with her phone. "When it happens, don't say I didn't warn you."

In the autumn light, Gensoukyou glowed like an oil painting, from the verdant green glaze of the Forest of Magic and its evergreen trees, the red and yellow mound of gold that was Youkai Mountain, to the umber and ochre of the mountains, all interwoven with the glittering gold-blue of the river. Far below her, Hakurei Shrine slipped past, and Momiji knew she was close enough now to descend and find somewhere to land. She flew down low over the Misty Lake, giving the fields of sunflowers nearby a large berth, skirted the rice paddies that surrounded the Human Village and came in to land on its outskirts.

Even with Keine's protection, she knew better than to alarm the humans who lived there. Things had been difficult the past few months, with a recent influx of people from the outside world. Many had chosen to stay, but it was rumoured that hidden among the normal immigrants were youkai exterminators. It was all just rumour of course, and Momiji had read it in BunBunMaru, which meant the information was somewhat suspect, but it was far better to be safe than sorry. There was a fragile balance between the two worlds here, and the small size of Gensoukyou meant that keeping things peaceful was an everyday job everyone had to be involved in.

Her geta-clad feet crunched on the gravel of a little path on top of a causeway between two rice fields and she stopped and looked about. With her telegnostic eyesight, anything within her line of sight was as clear as if it was right before her. Momiji's eyes caught movement coming from the direction of the human village, but the people there was still too far away to see her so she paid them little attention. In the opposite direction, towards the Bamboo Forest, everything was quiet. A thin splinter of smoke rose above the shimmering canopy of the bamboo, slanting away in the breeze that always seemed to rise in the late afternoon. A rabbit hopped out of the green shade of the forest, blinked in the sudden sunlight, and then hopped back. Several hundred feet away, a family of deer were feeding on the grassy verge at its edge.

There was no sign of Aya's geta. Momiji couldn't rely on her telegnosis without a clear line of sight, and she had no idea exactly where the geta had ended up, so she lifted her nose and sniffed at the air. She'd have to track Aya's scent down quickly. The rising breeze would diffuse the scent make things more difficult.

Aya had once asked her what it was like to have such an extraordinary sense of smell. Momiji had explained that it wasn't just a matter of things smelling stronger, but that she could tell more from what she did smell. The details and subtlety of scents, the way they intensified and diminished and melded together, told an intricate story of not just what was happening right now, but things that had happened in the past as well.

At that moment, the breeze in her face coming from the direction of the bamboo forest meant that the scents from there came into intense focus. There were the background scents of foliage and gravel, with the metallic tang of water and mud from the rice fields dominating but not overpowering. Against this, she smelled the bitter spiciness of the smoke, the musk of the deer, the succulent scent of rabbit. Someone wearing perfume had come to the outskirts of the forest in the past few hours, and it lingered everywhere. Momiji recognised the scent. Reisen. As it waxed and waned on the breeze, Momiji knew that the Lunarian had walked outside the forest not long ago, and had stood there for a while. It was a full moon tonight - perhaps she had come out to take a break from the preparations for the Moon Festival.

There were also flashes of stranger, exotic smells here and there, and Momiji knew it was Eintei she could smell, the herbs and medicines and potions, so strong that even from this far away they were a definite theme.

Then all at once she caught a flash of Aya's scent, but quickly lost it again. It had been a mere hint, but it had been enough to make her heart race.

She knew now that the direction of the bamboo forest was the way to go.

As she flew, she suddenly she caught the scent of something she had never smelled before. It was the scent of a youkai, a strong, animal scent. It wasn't another white-wolf tengu, but it was attractive and intriguingly canine.

Momiji forgot all about searching for Aya's scent and honed in on the new one. It brought her to the edge of the forest. Before her, the bamboo shifted in the breeze, shimmering like a veil of green foil, and as she stepped inside all sound dropped away, and it was as if she were entering a shrine with its numinous silence.

Even having grown up and living her whole life on Youkai Mountain, there was an eeriness about the Bamboo Forest that made Momiji nervous. She found herself looking around, unsure of herself. Here, in the close quarters of the bamboo, her telegnosis was no longer an advantage. Her sense of smell, too, was confused by the strangeness of the scents of Eintei which had grown stronger the moment she had stepped inside. It was very much as if she was a human walking in the dark.

As she walked the canine scent grew stronger. Momiji knew now that it was an old scent - whoever had made it was no longer there. A strange unexpected sense of disappointment struck her.

There, just ahead of her, was a stand of bamboo and on one of the lower branches she caught sight of a lock of hair.

She untangled it and examined it. It was silken-smooth, brown with reddish highlights, gorgeous hair that no doubt had belonged to someone beautiful.

Why beautiful? Perhaps its scent was making her think that. It was a rich scent, full of life, and she imagined the one who possessed it was strong, and quick, and beautiful. It was one of those things she could never explain to Aya. Some scents made their owners far more attractive, and the opposite was also true.

_Aya._

The crow tengu's scent, now that Momiji remembered, was stronger here, far fresher than the other. It was another scent that Momiji would call beautiful. It reminded of a clear mountain atmosphere and the zest of the air before a thunderstorm. Alive and swift and sexy.

Or was it just Aya herself that was alive and swift and sexy, and not her scent?

The thought made Momiji uncomfortable, so she turned her attention back to tracking the scent itself. She darted through the bamboo copses, eyes ever on the lookout, both for the geta and for any of the myriad of fears that the Forest held for her. She shied away several times for what had seemed like a figure, only to find it was the shadow of a stand of bamboo bending over together in the breeze and looking like someone crouching in ambush, or the dash of a rabbit, startled by her almost-noiseless tengu-step into seeking the safety of its burrow.

After a while she found it. In a small grassy glade the geta was sitting near the base of a stand of bamboo from where it had fallen out of the sky.

How on earth had Aya not noticed losing it, Momiji wondered as she picked it up and placed it in her pouch.

Suddenly the bamboo behind her rustled, far louder than the previous shimmering caused by the wind. Had the wind suddenly risen?

Again. Almost a crash. Someone moving. Something lacking the agility of a youkai or an animal - a human, probably.

Momiji half-climbed, half-flew up the nearest stand of bamboo with the preternatural grace of the tengu. She hung effortlessly from the top, amongst the highest branches, where she could look down into the forest below or across the tops of the shorter groups of bamboo at the surrounding landscape.

The sun was well on its way to setting. Had it really taken her so long? Time as well as scent and space had all become muddled in the forest.

She knew she should just fly off and leave the human to whatever had brought it here to the forest. It was no business of hers as a youkai. Interacting with humans only ever brought trouble.

But curiosity made her stay.

Between the waving trunks of the bamboo Momiji watched as a human entered the little glade.

It was a human girl, dressed in the simple _kosode_ of the women of the human village. Her hair was long, falling down well past her waist, reddish-brown and tending to waviness, and as she glanced around the glade, Momiji caught flashes of her face. It was a striking face, but pretty, the large violet eyes gentle and somehow sad.

The girl found what she was looking for. Kneeling down, she drew something out from its hiding place inside a stand of bamboo and unwrapped it with almost reverential care.

It was a gown.

She held it before her a while, as if admiring it, then lay it on the grass and began to remove her clothes.

Momiji's cheeks glowed hot and she turned away. She hadn't meant to peep, but she still felt ashamed as she hung there.

She soon began to feel foolish and had just decided to leave when she heard something else approaching through the forest. She looked down into the glade. Luckily, the girl had finished changing. In contrast to her drab earlier clothes, she was now wearing a full-length gown of a most striking design - half blue-white and half crimson, with black hash-patterning around the hem. The bodice was low, the flounced collar pinned at her neck with a blood-red jewelled brooch. There had been a strange transformation in the girl herself as well - she stood taller, somehow, and as she stepped away from the copse of bamboo after hiding her old clothes there, she walked with new confidence. Her face, however, retained its strange distracted look. She gazed upwards, and Momiji, stifling a gasp, swung about noiselessly to put the densest part of the foliage between the two of them.

The girl clearly hadn't heard what Momiji had heard. She was looking in the opposite direction to the one the noise was coming from. It was louder now, and Momiji wondered how she couldn't hear it. But she was a human after all. And the sound that was approaching had the feeling of one trying to mask their movement - not a youkai to be sure.

Momiji was right. As the girl stood gazing up at the open part of the canopy, a young man stepped into the glade on the opposite side from her.

He was a tall, slim, dressed in the clothes typical of the humans of the village - bare-headed, clad in a simple cloth kimono and wearing the sandals that resembled the geta of the tengu. His hair was dark and he seemed quite young. His features would have even been considered innocently boyish if not for his expression - one of intensity, contained mostly within the emerald of the eyes behind the half-moon glasses he wore. He moved with nervous excitement. At his side was a sword - the katana that important humans often carried with them.

The girl turned and saw him. She shied away at first, but then she seemed to change her mind and stepped toward him, smiling, her arms open.

It was hard to see them clearly, obscured as they were by the waving of the bamboo and its foliage. Momiji decided they were a couple who had sneaked off to the Bamboo Forest, no doubt - a risky place for a tryst, but one where they would definitely not be disturbed by other humans.

Then the wind changed, bringing their scents up to the tengu. She knew then that something was horribly wrong. They weren't young lovers at all.

The girl gave off a scent of tart metallic nervousness, the young man one of the bitterness of aggression and hatred.

Their words, too, came up to Momiji now, carried by the wind.

First, the girl's. It was a low voice, but sweet. It quavered a little, struggling to be innocent and friendly and not quite succeeding.

"Masayuki? Why are you here?"

The young man stopped where he was and made no movement forward. "Let's just say I was a little bit curious," he said. His voice was gentle, but contained within it a deep-seated irony.

The girl tilted her head, displayed a nervous smile. "I- I guess this must seem very strange. What I'm doing."

He smiled. "No, not at all. In fact, it is the very opposite of strange. It all makes perfect sense - _now_."

The girl's smile fell away, struggled to return. "I- I can explain."

"Don't concern yourself with explanations, Imazumi-san," said Masayuki, shaking his head. "Allow me. You're a _youkai_."

The girl took a step back. The young man raised a hand. It was a warning. She stopped.

"A youkai? You're wrong. Look at me, Masayuki." She waved a hand before herself. "Do I look like a youkai to you?"

The man's smile deepened, grew sardonic, as if he just tasted something unpleasant. "I've never liked falsehood. It doesn't become you. You merely look _human_. The truth is, you're a were-youkai."

The girl flinched as though she had been slapped.

"I've suspected for a long time," continued Masayuki. "Ever since that night you fled away from me, I knew that something was strange about you."

All at once the girl laughed. "So that's what this is all about. Look, I like you, Masayuki, just not the way that you want me to. I'm sorry."

"Resorting to feminine bluster now?" He shook his head, his smile rueful. "It's true - I was jealous, that night I followed you. I know you came here. A strange place for a girl to go, especially when it was growing dark. The Bamboo Forest is the domain of youkai. At first I thought you were going to kill yourself, offer yourself to them to be devoured."

The girl no longer tried to smile. Her face had taken on a hardness. "Kill myself? Over you? You certainly think a lot of yourself."

He ignored the barbed words. "I lost you, of course. In the Bamboo Forest, it's hard to find anything if you're not a youkai. But over the last month I've put it all together. The stories of a wolf-youkai seen here and there. It would have been better for you to have kept to the Bamboo Forest. Your attacks on sheep were going to be noticed sooner or later. But your dress. I wasn't sure until I saw you in it. A beautiful dress, but one which has sealed your fate."

The girl stepped forward. This time the young man took a step back.

"So you worked it out, Masayuki. Good for you." The girl sneered. "What are you going to do now? Drag me back and accuse me before everyone in the village? Demand that I do something for you so that you'll keep my secret?"

Masayuki grimaced in revulsion. "You're a youkai. The idea of you even touching me sickens me now. Bring you to justice? There is only one justice for youkai."

His hand flicked to his waist, and Momiji thought he was drawing his sword. Instead, he whipped his hand forward and a fuda, glowing with sealing magic, flew at the girl. It struck her on the neck and she stumbled back against a stand of bamboo and lay there, unmoving.

Masayuki looked over the paralysed girl, nodding appreciatively. "You might not have known, Imaizumi-san, but I have trained as a youkai exterminator since I was a child. I was worried that sealing magic would not work on you in your human form, but it seems I was worried to no purpose."

He drew his sword.

"I couldn't live on rabbits anymore," said the girl, her eyes and voice pleading. "The hunger was too great. I had to eat the sheep. Otherwise-"

"Otherwise you would eat humans, am I right?" He sighed. "Your self-control is admirable. But one day it would have not been enough. Sheep would no longer have been enough. You would have killed a human."

"I would never-"

"I know you know the truth. I can see it in your eyes. The youkai are the enemy of all humans. We are food to you." His lips twisted. "All that garbage spoken in the human village. A village? More like a cattle pen! Like I said before, there is only one justice for youkai - and that is _death_!"

He raised his sword and ran at her with a cry.

The girl screamed. The wind, suddenly rising, howled as it streaming through the glade.

Carried on it was Momiji, her sword drawn.

The tengu swung down hard, striking the young man's katana from above. It had been intended as a disarming blow, but Masayuki was far stronger than he looked. He absorbed the blow, stepping to the side as he brought his katana up and forcing Momiji to break away.

"Another wolf youkai," said the young man, his smile a glistening cut of silver as he looked over the tengu standing before him. "A friend of yours? It seems I might have to break a sweat."

"Leave here," said Momiji, a growl rising in her throat. "I don't want to have to kill you."

"A shame," said Masayuki. "I want to kill you." He darted forward, lunging at Momiji with his sword.

The blade slashed a hair's breadth from the side of Momiji's face as she stepped aside. Only the preternatural agility of the tengu had saved her.

Steadying her footing she stabbed forward with a cry.

He's fast, thought Momiji. _I've never fought a human so fast__._

Their blades met, and again. In the near-silence of the glade, the shrill keen of steel glancing against steel reverberated in the air long after the blows had been completed. Every cut and stab and slash was parried as they circled the glade, locked together.

More than once Momiji's shield saved her, but soon carrying it began to slow her down. She flung it aside and brought all her strength to bear on her blade. And not a moment too soon, for Masayuki was swinging a crushing blow from above his head. Momiji brought her sword up from beneath to meet it, wincing in pain as the hilt shivered with the blow.

Masayuki grinned over the blades as they slid shrieking against each other. "Not used to one trained in this style, are we? You've grown too used to the tame humans of your world. It's different Outside. We know our business killing youkai there. We're so good at it, in fact, that they're almost extinct."

"Why do you hate us so much?" asked Momiji through gritted teeth.

"There is only space for one species on this Earth," said Masayuki. Kicking the tengu away, he pulled his sword from Momiji's and darted forward, levelling a rain of blows from left and right that Momiji struggled to deflect.

One of them connected and the blow spun the tengu backwards.

"And that species," said Masayuki. "Is _us_."

Momiji fell back against a stand of bamboo, panting. The cut in her arm was shallow, but it bled profusely.

Wincing, she got back to her feet and flew at Masayuki, her sword flashing.

None of her blows connected. The young man seemed to have found his second wind, and he parried now with even greater confidence. Momiji began to tire.

The sky grew dark. The wind shrieked. Momiji stumbled on uneven ground.

Masayuki slashed upwards with his blade and Momiji's sword flew from her hands as if caught by the wind. She stumbled back, her lungs burning, the saliva in her mouth sticky with exhaustion.

"Go into the darkness, youkai. Time to join your friends in the Outside World."

Masayuki's hand flew. Fuda pasted themselves across Momiji's upper arm and neck. She slumped back, all movement stripped from her by the sealing magic.

Masayuki dropped his sword by his side and walked over to her. "Pity," he said. "Just when I was beginning to enjoy myself."

Momiji watched him approach from her imprisoned body, only her eyes able to move.

Masayuki stood over her. He steadied his feet and lightly swung his sword at an angle over his head up against Momiji's neck, testing.

"Don't worry, youkai," said Masayuki. "I'll make this clean."

Momiji closed her eyes. The coldness of the blade at her neck disappeared.

She waited for the pain.

Suddenly the darkness in Momiji's eyes was replaced with light. Silver-white, it came in flashes.

Was this death, then? Light scattering like snowflakes and falling about her from the sky. Was death really this beautiful?

Momiji opened her eyes. She was not dead. The light was coming from the moon above her, shattered by the violently waving foliage. It had risen while she and Masayuki had fought, hidden by the canopy of the forest now peeled back by the wind.

The wind dropped and the shimmering canopy fell back into place. Shadow returned to the glade. Momiji lowered her eyes. Only the glittering of Masayuki's dark eyes was visible now, his blade an arc of starlight.

With a cry he struck.

The blow never met. Something darker still than the shadows flew between them. Masayuki was thrown backwards, his sword sent flying from his hands, glinting as it flew through the air.

He screamed. As moonlight spilled into the glade, the dark thing upon him had grown slashing red nails and silvery fangs.

The wind howled, and something other than the wind. The moon's light ebbed and flowed over the glade, rendering the scene in chiaroscuro.

Momiji saw now that the shadow wore the gown she had seen before, red-black, the moon reflected in it, the blood-red gem flashing at its neck.

The girl was pinning the man beneath her, her face lowered against his, a deep growling emanating from her throat. She had changed. Her auburn hair was longer, with two tufted ears at the top of her head. Her eyes glowed red, her nails now vicious talons that glistened, poised in the air.

She brought them down to Masayuki's neck.

"I should tear your throat out," she growled.

Masayuki looked up at her, his smile thin. "So do it then."

She slashed down. Masayuki screamed.

The girl leaped off him as he struggled onto his feet, a hand clasping his side. Blood glistened from the rent in his kimono, seeped out between his trembling fingers.

"You've been repaid for the wound you gave her," said the girl. She grabbed Masayuki from beneath his arms and hefted him up effortlessly. "Now go."

He stared down at her, eyes flickering in panic. "You're- you're letting me go? Why show me mercy?"

"No mercy," said the girl. "I have vowed never to kill a human. But without your weapons you will never leave the Bamboo Forest alive. Another youkai, less squeamish than me, will strip your worthless life from you, if fate so wills it."

She carried him struggling out through the shimmering curtain of the glade and vanished into the darkness.

A short while later she returned. As soon as she looked towards where Momiji was still lying paralysed, the fierceness of her expression melted away.

She came closer and Momiji recognised the scent immediately. That dangerous and beautiful one. She had smelled differently as a human.

The girl leaned down and peeled the fuda from Momiji's skin with her talons. They flashed dangerously, but so delicately that they did not even graze the skin.

Momiji found she could move again. She began to rise, but it became a fall, and the girl caught her.

"Th- thank you," said Momiji. The sudden warmth of her body and the closeness of her scent made the tengu's face hot.

As the girl helped her onto her feet, her fingers fell onto her arm. They were soft.

"You're wounded," said the girl.

"It's not really a wound," said Momiji, embarrassed. "Just a scratch."

But the youkai girl was already bending over the cut as if wanting to examine it closely. Suddenly Momiji felt a hot tongue lapping at her skin.

"Ah," she murmured.

"Don't squirm," said the girl, continuing to lick. "It doesn't hurt does it?"

"Not- ah, not anymore."

The girl lifted her head, wiped the little smear of blood from her mouth. "Ah. I'm sorry. I guess we should be on first name basis if I'm going to lick your wounds like that. I just wanted to thank you." She smiled. "My name is Imaizumi Kagerou."

"Imaizumi-san," repeated Momiji. "I'm Inubashiri Momiji of Youkai Mountain."

"You're far from home," said Kagerou. "And just Kagerou is fine. I owe you my life."

"I owe you mine too," said Momiji.

"I'm pitifully weak as a human," said Kagerou in disgust. "But as a wolf - luckily the blessing of the moon was enough for me to remove the fuda."

"Do you think he'll make it out of the forest?"

Kagerou shrugged. "Who can say?"

"I'm worried he'll try and hurt you again."

Kagerou smiled. "I don't think anyone will believe him. And anyway, I can look after myself - usually." She gazed up at the moon.

Her eyes became distant, and a low rumble came from deep in her throat. It rose, becoming a shuddering howl that resounded around the glade.

She turned to Momiji who was staring at her.

"I'm sorry," she said, smiling shyly. "It's just - the moon does things to me."

Momiji gazed at the youkai girl appreciatively. As a human, Kagerou had been pretty, but as a werewolf... well, she was _beautiful_.

Her scent had not lied.

Kagerou felt Momiji looking at her and began to blush. Momiji dropped her gaze.

"I'm hungry, Momiji," said Kagerou suddenly, breaking the awkwardness. "Would you like to hunt with me?"

Momiji looked up, swallowed. "Rabbits?"

"Rabbits," said Kagerou. "Or anything else that gets in our way."

"Uh, I- I don't usually-"

Kagerou blinked. "But you're a white wolf tengu, right? Part wolf?"

"Yes, but it's been a long time since-"

Kagerou smiled. "Maybe it's time to remember."

The werewolf ran to the edge of the moonlit copse, the light silvering her eyes as she turned and beckoned. A smile, playful and challenging, flashed on her face. Then she leaped into the darkness and was gone.

Momiji took a few uncertain steps then burst into a run after her.

I hope I don't make too much of a fool of myself.

Kagerou set a blistering pace. Even in a dress, she ran fast. Following her scent, Momiji caught up with her at last, and the two ran through the forest together.

"So tengu aren't just fighters," said Kagerou from beside her. "They can run too."

The werewolf fell forward and began to run on all fours, streaking ahead.

Momiji shouldered her sword and shield farther onto her back, and went forward on all fours as well. For a moment it felt strange, but then her memories came flooding back.

I haven't run like this since I was a puppy.

The scent of rabbit was everywhere here. The two wolf-youkai burst into a clearing and panicked a small group who had been nibbling at the grass of a little moonlit grove. They scattered, and most fled down into nearby burrows , but several, panicking, fled into the darkness.

Kagerou pointed one out and Momiji nodded.

They pursued it. The rabbits of the Bamboo Forest were no ordinary ones, and it ran swiftly, and it took all they had to keep up with it.

Momiji felt the blood pumping through her body and exhilaration with it. Kagerou moved away from her and the two wolves instinctively began to work together, herding the rabbit, keeping it from breaking away and striving to run it to exhaustion.

The werewolf vanished into the darkness, reappeared again, darting from behind the bamboo as they ran.

After a while they lost track of the rabbit, but they kept running. Several times Kagerou broke away and disappeared, only to reappear at Momiji's heels, or on her other side, darting out of the bamboo.

The werewolf grinned at her, lunged across and snapped at her with her jaws.

Momiji shied away. What was she trying to do?

Kagerou was staying abreast of the white wolf tengu now. She brought her body alongside and shoved against her, trying to knock her off her feet.

What had gotten into her?

Momiji changed tack, ran faster, broke away from Kagerou, her lungs burning in her chest.

The werewolf swung about, came after her.

They weren't hunting rabbits anymore, Momiji realised.

She

was the one being hunted.

Kagerou was close behind her now. She could hear her panting in the darkness, suddenly felt the heat of her breath.

Momiji looked behind her. Kagerou was right on top of her, snapping at her heels.

When she turned back she found herself running straight towards a fallen stand of bamboo. Momiji made a desperate leap, but the distraction proved costly. Kagerou pulled her legs from under her and she went tumbling across the grassy verge on the other side. The werewolf was on her in a heartbeat, and Momiji struggled under her sudden weight.

Kagerou wrestled with her, grinning all the while. Momiji struggled, but exhaustion had gripped her. It took no time at all before Kagerou was on top of her and pinning her arms to the cool dewiness of the grass.

"Wh- what about the rabbits?" said Momiji, gasping.

Kagerou's eyes flashed red.

"I'm not hungry for rabbit anymore."

She leaned close and suddenly made a playful snap at Momiji's throat. The tengu squirmed and struggle harder, but couldn't escape.

Kagerou grinned, leaned down again. Momiji flinched, but instead of tearing teeth she felt the softness of Kagerou's lips against the skin of her neck.

Momiji gasped, struggling weakly, as Kagerou pulled back.

"I'm sorry," said the werewolf. Her grin had softened to a shy smile. "When I'm a wolf, I tend to get carried away."

She climbed off Momiji, who scrambled onto her knees, rubbing at her arms.

"It's okay," said the tengu. She saw that her shield and sword had been dislodged during their wrestling, and she went to retrieve them.

She strapped them to her back and felt at the pouch at her side. It was empty.

"Looking for this?"

Kagerou was holding Aya's geta in her hands.

"Ah, yes. Thank you," said Momiji.

Kagerou looked at her in curiousity. "Do you often carry a spare geta with you?"

Momiji flushed. "It- it belongs to someone I know. She lost it."

Kagerou handed it to her. "So that's why you were in the Bamboo Forest."

Momiji nodded as she replaced it in her pouch.

"The Bamboo Forest is a bit far away from Youkai Mountain, though."

"She's a crow tengu," explained Momiji. "A reporter. She travels all over Gensoukyou."

"She smells pretty." Kagerou's face had grown serious. "Is she?"

Momiji flushed deeper. "Aya? Uh. I guess so. A lot of people say she is."

The werewolf lowered her face and looked up at the tengu through dark lashes. "Is she your mate?"

"Mate?" Momiji laughed, and then wondered why she had. "Uh, no. She's just a-"

What _was_ Aya exactly?

"-a friend," she finished lamely.

The distance that had appeared in Kagerou's face melted away and she came closer. She grinned, her fangs distinct in the moonlight. Momiji took a step back but not before the werewolf's hands had slipped around her waist.

"Well, since she's a friend," said Kagerou, leaning forward so close that Momiji felt the heat of her breath. "She won't mind if I do _this_, right?"

Kagerou brought her lips against Momiji's, and the tengu gasped. The werewolf was pressing her body against her, the heat of her body passing through to her. The intensity of her scent was so strong that Momiji grew dizzy, her heart beating faster.

She brought her own hands up, trembling, to Kagerou's waist. Kagerou snuggled closer, and Moiji inclined her head back, letting her lips slip open. The werewolf's tongue tentatively darted in between her lips and Momiji's met it with her own.

The tengu was gasping when Kagerou finally broke the kiss.

"Wh- what was that for?"

Kagerou's red eyes danced. "You didn't like it?"

Momiji dropped her gaze. She hated how quickly a blush came to her face. "Uh. No, I did. Like it, I mean."

"You saved my life," said Kagerou. "I thought maybe it was at least worth a little kiss."

"You saved mine too," said Momiji.

Kagerou smiled. "I guess I deserve a kiss as well, then. So what are you waiting for? I won't bite. Look, I'll even close my eyes if you feel nervous." She did so.

Momiji hesitated. Her lips still tingled with the kiss, and her heart was beating even faster than when she had fought for her life just a short while earlier. She moved closer, brought her trembling lips against Kagerou's. The wolf-girl's lips were slightly parted, her breath hot and fragrant.

Momiji closed her own eyes. Their lips touched.

Then Kagerou's arms were enveloping her, her body soft and warm against her as the werewolf pressed her mouth against Momiji's hungrily. The tengu gasped, stepped backwards against a stand of bamboo to steady herself. The trunk was hard against her back as Kagerou started to fumble at Momiji's top.

"Uh, wait a second," muttered Momiji. "I, uh-"

"You don't want to?"

"No. Uh, it's just that... it's kind of tricky. It's easier if I do it."

She loosened the ribbons on her sleeves then reached behind her back and began to untie the ribbons there.

"Do all white wolf tengu wear this sort of thing?" Kagerou was running her lips across her neck, caressing the skin with her teeth.

"I guess so," said Momiji, her fingers fumbling from the excitement.

"They're adorable... the detachable sleeves, I mean." Kagerou's kissing had trailed down her collar and onto her bare shoulder which she began to pepper with kisses and small licks.

The ribbons finally came undone. Momiji slid the sleeves from her arms and then began to pull her top off over her head. While the tengu's arms were in the air, Kagerou suddenly attacked her exposed armpits, sniffing and licking at them.

Half-gasping, half-laughing, Momiji stumbled and almost fell over from the tickling sensation of the werewolf's tongue. "H- hey!"

"You taste salty," said Kagerou, licking her lips.

"I'm sorry."

"I like it. A lot. Lie back"

She pushed Momiji gently to the ground and began to unravel her sarashi. The tengu's breasts soon popped free of their confinement and Kagerou exhaled in surprise.

"I had no idea you were so... big," she said, eyes wide.

Momiji turned her face away. "I... uh. You really think so?"

"You must wear your sarashi really tightly. It flattened you out. I have to say I'm a bit jealous."

"They- they get in the way, otherwise." Momiji flushed, then gasped again as she felt Kagerou's hands slip across her breasts. Even with her long, lacquered nails, her touch was exquisitely gentle.

"This skin is too soft to belong to a warrior," said Kagerou. "You're nipples are hard, though."

Momiji soon felt the teasing of Kagerou's caresses getting too much.

"Please..." she whimpered, and the pathetic sound of her voice shamed her.

Kagerou turned the tengu's head to face her.

"Please _what_?" Her red eyes smouldered.

"_Please_..." The tengu's chest rose and fell with her excitement, her voice trailing off into a whisper.

Kagerou sighed. "I guess I _am_ teasing you too much. I'm teasing myself as well, now."

She leaned down and kissed her way along Momiji's quivering neck and down across her collar. Then the hot wetness of her mouth suddenly enveloped a nipple and the tengu cried out.

Kagerou went from one nipple to the other, lapping at them with short, sharp licks.

"Please don't," muttered Momiji. "Don't stop."

Kagerou slid a hand lower, drawing her nails across Momiji's stomach.

"Please bite them. Gently."

Kagerou did as Momiji asked, her teeth grazing the firmness of each nipple in turn.

"Uhh..."

Kagerou pulled away. Momiji opened her eyes, saw her stand up and reach around to loosen the lacing at the back of her gown. She did it quickly then slipped it off over her head.

When she saw Momiji looking at her she clutched the dress to her body. "Don't look at me!"

"What's the matter?"

Kagerou flushed. "When... when I'm a wolf, I get a bit... hairier. My legs and... It's... embarrassing."

"I don't care about that," said Momiji, getting to her feet. "I like the natural look."

"Are- are you sure?"

Momiji took the dress from her and tossed it aside.

"Everything about you is beautiful," said Momiji, kneeling in front of her, her arms slipping around her waist, her hands stroking the length of her tail. She slid Kagerou's underwear down off her hips, brought her face against the flatness of her stomach and ran her lips along the pale skin. "Especially your scent."

"Th- thank you," said Kagerou, and this time it was her turn to turn her face away, her cheeks crimson.

Momiji slowly rose to her feet, kissing her way up Kagerou's stomach, across the soft swelling of her breasts to her bare shoulders and neck, breathing in the strong scent of her. Drawing their bodies flush together, Momiji drew her lips along the length of one of Kagerou's ear then nibbled playfully at the tip.

The werewolf began to growl and Momiji stepped back.

"Uh... what's wrong?" she asked.

Kagerou's face was flushed. "You're- you're really making me excited. I love having my ears played with."

"Is that so?" Momiji smiled.

She leaned close again and began to lap and nibble at her ear. Suddenly Kagerou's head jerked forward, her white teeth flashing at Momiji's exposed neck. They closed on her skin and bit down, half-bite, half-kiss, and the tengu cried out at the sharp, unexpected pain. She broke away and clapped a hand to her neck.

"You said you wouldn't bite!" she cried.

"I said _yet, _remember?" laughed Kagerou. "Besides, you asked me to bite you."

"I meant my... my breasts. Not my neck." Momiji rubbed at it, glanced at her palm. No blood, luckily. "Now everyone-"

Kagerou laughed as she leaned forward and licked at the bite mark. "You're worried you'll get teased by the other tengu because of a love-bite?"

"No, uh, it's just..."

"Or maybe you're worried about what your friend who keeps losing her geta will think?" She grinned, revealing her fangs. "Don't worry. I'll make you forget all about her."

Then Kagerou was on top of her again, and Momiji tried desperately to push her off. But as Kagerou's lips and grazing teeth flashed across her exposed skin and her hands began to strip her skirt off, Momiji stopped struggling and pulled the werewolf to her. She clung to her, gasping and whimpering, her body shaking while Kagerou took whatever she wanted with her hot and ravenous mouth.

Momiji woke with something warm and deliciously fragrant nuzzling into her chest. Above her, the sky, encircled by a crown of gently swaying leaves, was beginning to lighten.

Dawn.

A hand slipped across her chest, caressing her. Momiji took hold of it, interweaving the fingers with her own. She noticed the red lacquered nails on them were talons no longer.

"Good morning," said the tousled head at her side. It moved sleepily, and a face appeared behind the mass of auburn hair.

"Good morning," said Momiji, sitting up. Kagerou did the same, clutching her dress to her like a blanket. In the light of day, the moon having set, she was a human again. Her head was no longer crowned by those tufted ears, and her eyes had lost their redness and returned to their original gentle violet. She was shorter as well, her body slighter, having lost the power of her werewolf form.

"I'm starving," said Kagerou. "Do you think if I lay in front of one of the burrows with my mouth open, one of those rabbits would be stupid enough to walk straight into it?"

"I don't think so," said Momiji, laughing. "Do you really think you'd be able to chew up a rabbit in your human form? Why don't we just go have some grilled eel? It's not far to Mystia's stall from here."

Kagerou looked uncomfortable. "Uh, I can't."

"What's the matter?"

Kagerou smiled sadly and waved a hand across her body. "You know that youkai and humans can't be seen together."

"That's not really..."

"It is true, though, isn't it? What Masayuki said?"

Momiji sighed. "But you're a youkai too, aren't you?"

"A _were_-youkai," said Kagerou. She slipped back into her dress and then busied herself trying to comb out the knots in her hair with her fingers. "The best and worst of both worlds, I suppose."

Momiji said nothing. Then, when the silence became awkward, she said, "We should go back and get your human clothes."

Her_ human_ clothes. The words almost died on her lips.

They walked together. In the morning light the bamboo forest had lost much of its eeriness. The green and yellow of the forest canopy filtered the light into a lime-green. It was as if they were light passing through the heart of an emerald. Momiji's heart ached with the beauty of it.

She looked across at the girl walking beside her.

Maybe it wasn't the forest that had made her feel that way.

She began to slide a trembling hand down towards Kagerou's own then hesitated, but before she could pull it back, the girl took it in her own, lifted it to her mouth and kissed it.

Momiji's heart skipped. "I- I was worried that-"

Kagerou turned to her. The features of her human face were only a little different to that of her wolf-form, but there was a fragility to them, a brittleness that was hard to define. She smiled, a little sadly.

"It's hard, Momiji. I- I really like you. But..."

The tengu nodded. There was no need to say it.

"I know."

She let go of her hand.

Momiji's eyes began to sting. She turned away, lifting a sleeve and pressing her arm against her face.

Kagerou suddenly embraced her, burying her face in the silver-white hair draped across her neck. "Don't cry. I just said it was hard. Hard is different from impossible."

The tengu blinked at her, the tears in her lashes like beaded diamonds.

"You live on Youkai Mountai, right?" asked Kagerou. "Do they let you have visitors?"

"Well, it depends," said Momiji, wiping away her tears. "Wait, do you mean-"

"I'm not the sort of girl who just loves and leaves someone, Momiji. But you might have to wait for a while."

"Until the full moon?" She sighed. It seemed an eternity away.

The smile on Kagerou's face was rueful. "It would be strange if a human suddenly appeared at the Mountain, right?"

Momiji shivered. The thought of what might happen to Kagerou in such a situation terrified her.

Kagerou suddenly dropped her gaze. "That's if- If you want me to visit you. I'll understand if-"

Momiji swung her around and kissed her, hard. Kagerou was so slight and delicate in her human form that the tengu realised she could probably lift her up with one arm if she wanted to. It was a dramatic contrast with the werewolf she had wrestled with the night before and who had flung her about like a doll.

When Momiji pulled away, Kagerou was breathless.

"I- I guess that's a yes," gasped the girl.

After they retrieved Kagerou's clothes and she changed back into them, it was as if her transformation back into a human was finally complete. As she folded her gown and hid it away, Momiji couldn't help but think that the youkai half of her was being hidden away with it.

They walked together. Momiji felt the distance still there between the two of them, even though they were hand in hand. In the light of day something had changed.

They embraced and kissed a final time on the edge of the Bamboo Forest, Kagerou lifting a hand to the tengu's ears and rubbing them. Momiji closed her eyes, delighting in her touch, and so she only heard the girl's voice as she said goodbye.

"I'll see you again soon, Momiji. When the full moon rises I'll come to you. I promise."

Warm lips touched her own and then Kagerou was gone. Momiji opened her eyes and pushed through the final stands of bamboo to see the girl running along the road towards the Human Village.

She watched her for a while, but then her eyes began to burn and she turned and leaped into the air.

Momiji flew back to Youkai Mountain, the landscape slipping vivid and golden below her. She felt such a strange mixture of joy and pain that she stopped part way, alighting on the top of a tall pine. She turned and looked back across the miles of rice fields and scattered woods and gentle hills she had traversed, back to the road between the bamboo forest and the village. With her eyesight she spotted Kagerou, already half-way to the village. With her telegnosis, it was as if she was looking at her face to face.

She held a hand to her face as she walked, tears streaming down in between her fingers.

Momiji raised a hand to the air, as if she could reach across the distance between them. Then she closed her eyes, feeling the tears she had held back spilling out all at once.

In the clear still water near the far bank, Momiji looked at her reflection. She shifted the collar of her shirt, exposing her neck. The bite mark was still there. She touched it, the faint pain a delicious reminder of the previous night. The reflection of her blushing face looked up at her from the water.

Is this the face of someone in love?

Suddenly there was another face in the mirror of the water beside her own.

Momiji whipped around to find Aya standing behind her.

There was a look of concern on the tengu's face. "Momiji? Are you okay? When you didn't come back last night, I thought maybe..."

Momiji quickly adjusted her collar and managed a shy smile. "I, uh, had a little trouble finding your geta. But I did in the end." She brought it out of her pouch and handed it to her.

Aya took it without looking at it. "Trouble?" Then she gasped. She dropped the geta and grabbed Momiji's arm. "Is- is that a _wound_?"

Momiji cursed the fact she hadn't bothered to hide it. After Kagerou had licked it clean, it hadn't bled at all and so she hadn't bothered to bandage it.

It was her turn to gasp when Aya drew gentle fingers across it. "Did something attack you?"

Something made Momiji bend the truth. "I- I kind of met a youkai and got into a fight and-"

"Did you win?"

Momiji felt her face flush. "Uh, yeah. But I ended up lost in the Bamboo Forest and..."

Aya suddenly threw her arms around Momiji's neck, her wings enfolding the two of them.

"You got into a fight and got wounded all because of me," she whispered, her chin resting on the white wolf tengu's shoulder. "Thank you, Momiji."

She broke the embrace, leaving a blushing and dumbfounded Momiji staring at her. "Uh," she managed at last. "It was no problem."

"You have to come visit me at the office," said Aya with a grin. "I owe you a photo shoot, remember?"

Momiji blinked. "But didn't we..."

Aya didn't stay to listen. She blew a kiss as she leaped into the air and then swooped away, vanishing behind the red-gold of the surrounding ridge.

Momiji, her heart racing, lifted a grey-black feather from where it was lying on her shoulder.

She brought it to her nose and closed her eyes as boundless blue sky and the tang of distant thunderstorms overtook her.

"Aya."

Aya's face was as black as thunder as she swept through the air over Youkai Mountain. She was going nowhere in particular. She just had to get away from Momiji at that moment. She knew something had happened. The blush on her face, the wound on her arm. The hug had given her the perfect cover to examine Momiji more closely.

Seeing the kiss-mark on her neck had been like a kick to the stomach.

"You got lost in the bamboo forest, did you, my faithful little puppy?" she muttered to herself. "So lost you wandered innocently into someone else's arms? Who is the bitch? One of those little rabbit slu..."

"Talking to yourself again Aya?" It was Hatate She swept up from the forested slope below and came along aside her fellow crow tengu, matching her speed. "They say it's the first sign of madness."

"Get away from me." Aya swung down low across the tree tops, but Hatate followed her, somehow managing to keep playing with her cell phone as she did so.

"Something happen between you and Momiji?" she asked, the ghost of a smile creeping onto her lips.

"Ayaya! Why do you automatically think it's about _her_?" The final word dripped with animus as Aya turned her face away.

"No reason," said Hatate. She looked up from her phone and stared at the back of Aya's head. Her gaze made the older tengu turn to meet it.

"Then why are you looking at me like that? I'm _fine_."

"Momiji might be a white wolf tengu," said Hatate. "But she's also a girl. She's fragile. Don't forget that."

"You're talking about _her_ again?" A grimace disfigured Aya's pretty face. "Are you in love with her or something?"

Hatate said nothing and returned to playing with her phone. As Aya pulled away from her, she made no effort to follow her and instead glided down until she disappeared amongst the treetops below.

Aya kept flying, but now she had a goal. The workshop of Kawashiro Nitori, the kappa, far below at the base of the mountain.

She would need her help if she was going to get to the bottom of the whole thing.

_To be continued_


End file.
